Warm’d with the gen’rous flame that spreads a glow
O’er youth’s gay breast, with boundless joy we view,
The objects to our ravish’d senses new,
And hail the sun, whose glorious rays bestow
Such vary’d beauties on Creation’s form:
So when we wond’ring see a mighty mind,
Sent to delight, instruct, and guide mankind,
Our breasts with rapt’rous praises, kindling warm--
Sudden we see its shade,--and backward start,
Checking the loud applause;--in measur’d pace,
Comes cold Discretion with her doubting face,
And claps her frigid hand upon the heart;
Ah! when shall man his praise unbounded pay?--
When God shall be the theme--and heav’n’s own light the day.
* * * * *
EPIGRAM
Hint To A Poor Author.
_Q._ Why this verbose redundant style,
Think you the more the better?
_A._ Undoubtedly--for know my friend.
I sell it by the LETTER.
_NEW-YORK: +Printed by JOHN TIEBOUT, No. 358, Pearl-Street, for THOMAS
BURLING, Jun. & Co.+ +Subscriptions+ for this +Magazine+ (at 6s. per
quarter) are taken in at the Printing-Office, and at the Book-Store of
Mr. J. FELLOWS, Pine-Street._
* * * * *
* * * *
* * * * *
THE NEW-YORK WEEKLY MAGAZINE;
or, Miscellaneous Repository.
+Vol. II.+] _Wednesday, June 28, 1797._ [+No. 104.+
+Of the KNOWLEDGE of the WORLD,+
With Respect to the Follies and Vices of It.
The business of education would be very easy, if the world, into which a
young man is to be introduced, was such as one would wish it to be. No
person could then fail of being well educated; for the world itself
would, in general, be his best instructor: every irregularity would then
be sufficiently punished and corrected by the natural consequences of
it, and sufficient encouragement would be given to every virtue by its
own present reward. But the difficulty is to train up a person to act
with prudence and virtue in a foolish and vicious age, and to prepare
his mind properly for such scenes of vice and folly as he must be
witness to. With the best precautions there will be some hazard in this
case, but the hazard will certainly be lessened by proper care and
attention.
It appears to me that nothing is gained by deceiving a young person in
this case. I would not chuse to represent the manners of the world as
better than they are: because, upon that plan, it would be impossible
that my pupil should be sufficiently upon his guard against their
infection. It would be like committing him with an enemy, of whom he had
no previous knowledge.
Let a young man, therefore, be faithfully apprized of the great variety
of characters of which the world consists; that none are absolutely
perfect; that those who approach to perfection are few; that the bulk of
mankind are very imperfect, and many, but not the majority, exceedingly
profligate, deceitful, and wicked: and if, while he was under the
immediate care of his parents, and tutors, the principles of virtue were
carefully instilled into him, if he has been shewn the inconveniencies
and miseries that men actually bring upon themselves by their vices in
this life, and has been taught firmly to believe the much greater
miseries that await them hereafter, it may be hoped that the ill example
of some may have as favourable an effect upon him as the good example of
others.
But though a young person may be _told_ what the world is, and what men
are, without disguise, it will be necessary that his actual introduction
into the world at large be managed with great caution; because the
address and insinuations of many persons into whose company he may fall,
and whose morals are very faulty, may be more dangerous than he can
possibly have any idea of beforehand; so that no previous admonition
will be a sufficient security for him. Let the greatest care, therefore,
be taken that the first _company_ into which a young person is
introduced, be decent and virtuous, like that of his parents and tutors;
and, if it be possible, let him be kept from having any connexion with
those who are greatly abandoned and profligate, till his own habits are
in some good measure confirmed; and then he will not chuse their society
more than the common forms of civility, which are necessary to an
intercourse with mankind, and which are unavoidable.
It would be happy if some vices, of a peculiarly unnatural and atrocious
kind, could be entirely concealed from the knowledge of young persons;
and, with care, it may perhaps be done, till they be too old to be in
much danger from temptation to them. In general, however, I would
neither conceal from young persons the knowledge of vice, nor deny that
temporal advantages and pleasures may attend vicious indulgencies; but
let them be always given to understand, that those advantages and
pleasures are dearly purchased; and that, though, for a time, no visible
inconvenience may attend the career of vice, the time of _recompence_
will surely overtake the votaries of it at last; and that no man will
ever violate the rules of temperance, chastity, or any other virtue,
without being made sufficiently to repent of it.
With respect to indulgencies which are not vicious, except in excess, as
frequenting the theatre, and places of public diversion, &c. there will
be less danger of contracting an excessive fondness for them, if they
have been made familiar to the eye, and the mind, in early life. The
value of every thing of this kind is always greatly enhanced by the
rarity and novelty of them, by being considered as fashionable, and
allowed as an extraordinary favour. Were these artificial charms
removed, and sufficiently manly employment provided for youth, so that
they should not be at a loss what to do so kill their time, there would
be no great danger of their giving into that excessively dissipated mode
of life, in which too many persons of fortune are immersed at present.
A life of _pleasure_, as it is improperly called, never fails to have
most dreadful intervals of languor and disappointment, and generally
leads to vice and wretchedness. When the common amusements have lost
their _stimulus_, so that plays, operas, and assemblies, can hardly keep
the men of pleasure awake, and when they have had a surfeit of all
sensual indulgence, they have no resource but _gaming_. Without this
they have no object that can sufficiently rouse and keep up their
attention; and though the practice of gaming, could it be kept within
reasonable bounds, might serve to enliven a dull hour, and amuse
agreeably, and even usefully, persons who are incapable of active and
serious employment, or other persons in the intervals of such
employment; yet the progress from _less to more_ is too easy, and too
tempting in this business; and _high gaming_ is the greatest enemy to
every thing tranquil, gentle, benevolent, and generous, in the human
breast. It cherishes every passion that has any thing sordid, dark, and
malignant in it; so that when carried to excess, and joined to
disappointment, it is no wonder that it ends in riot, distraction,
despair, and self-murder.